Pickaway County schools are taking big steps toward better educating students with autism, and they are working with experts to find out how to improve. The Pickaway County Educational Services Center is partnering with the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) and Pickaway County Board of DD to bring Amy Bixler-Coffin to the area. Amy’s role is to look at current services being offered for students with Autism and make recommendations for improvement.

This collaboration began with a series of meetings between special education directors and administrators from all four school districts in Pickaway County to outline expectations and outcomes. OCALI then gathered data for initial analysis, and this was followed by observations within the school districts. Moving into spring Amy will conduct interviews with ancillary staff such as occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, psychologists, and behavior specialist. In May of 2018, OCALI will provide a final presentation and make recommendations for each school district. Results are expected to address methods and resources for recommendation. Pickaway County Board of DD will then determine how to best fill gaps and provide resources to school districts.

This process to improve education has been a collaborative effort. All four school districts in Pickaway County have been eager to learn how they can better educate students on the autism spectrum, and such positive and sincere effort is expected to make Pickaway County even better at providing services for students with special needs.